Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.) | Report on reproductive healthcare misinformation risks at Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)

Status
6.44% votes in favour
AGM date
Previous AGM date
Proposal number
10
Resolution details
Company ticker
GOOGL
Lead filer
The Educational Foundation of America
Resolution ask
Report on or disclose
ESG theme
  • Social
ESG sub-theme
  • Public health
Type of vote
Shareholder proposal
Filer type
Shareholder
Company sector
Technology
Company HQ country
United States
Resolved clause
RESOLVED: Shareholders request that the Board publish a report within one year of the annual meeting, at reasonable expense and excluding proprietary or legally privileged information, assessing the effectiveness of Alphabet’s policies and actions to reduce the dissemination of false or misleading content related to reproductive health care.
Whereas clause
WHEREAS: Google is a leading source of information on reproductive healthcare – Americans make about 102 million searches for queries related to abortion every year.1



Although Google has pledged enforcement action for violations of its policies implicating reproductive healthcare content in the wake of the revocation of constitutional abortion rights in 2022, recent studies show the company continues to facilitate abortion-related misinformation, such as by enabling or optimizing false or misleading content from or regarding crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), which do not provide abortion services:



• A 2023 investigation by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) revealed that “when a TTP-created Google account identifying as a lower- or average-income woman in Phoenix searched for information on how to get an abortion, more than half the search ads (56%) served by Google came from [CPCs]”;2
• A 2023 report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) identified 188 CPCs that paid for advertisements to appear in Google Search results related to more than 15,000 different queries about abortion. Almost three-fourths of these clinics “used deceptive means of advertising, advancing false claims that abortions are linked to cancer and other diseases”, and 38% had no homepage disclaimer stating that they don’t provide abortions3 – a requirement of Google’s advertising policy4;
• CCDH research from 2022 found that 11% of Google search results for “abortion clinic near me” and “abortion pill” in abortion-restrictive states lead to CPC websites.


These findings have drawn attention from federal and state legislators, as well as major media outlets like The Guardian, Business Insider, Fortune, The Hill, Yahoo Finance, and Bloomberg.



Inaccurate information and poor content management generally has and can harm Alphabet’s bottom line.5 Such practices can create reputational and brand risk, and invite regulatory and legislative scrutiny that could affect the profitability of the company’s advertisement operations. These content management issues may also amplify systemic risks affecting Alphabet and the overall economy – restricting abortion has been shown to have negative spillover effects on women’s employment and educational attainment. To mitigate these risks, an evaluation of the effectiveness of existing company policies is warranted.

How other organisations have declared their voting intentions

Organisation nameDeclared voting intentionsRationale
Whitley Asset ManagementForInformation concerning exposure to risks related to misinformation and disinformation could be decision-useful for shareholders. There is evidence to suggest that advertising and search results have been used to promote disinformation around this issue, and that the policies in place to prevent this have not worked in this instance.
VidaCaixaFor
THEMATICS Asset ManagementFor
Rothschild & co Asset ManagementFor
Kutxabank Gestion SGIIC SAU.For

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